I guess it’s kind of odd that I’d be searching for Chinese Food on a trip to New York, but Ottawa does do that to you! I was pretty skeptical about China Chalet, but I was extremely hungry after my failed attempts to find other restaurants on my list.
Walking in the door I found a flight of stairs that looked quite nostalgic which appropriately matched the restaurant’s decor. The lighting and colors reminded me of those 70’s Show Lounges I see in old school Hong Kong Dramas.
But looking at the menu, this is was definitely an old school Chinese restaurant with New York City prices. Completely overpriced but when hunger strikes it’s no time for deal-finding!

Pan Fried Beef Rice Noodles

They were certainly stingy on their serving portion. But I guess we didn’t need a giant plate of grease, a small one would suffice. Pan fried beef rice noodles are expected to be quite greasy, but since there was more noodle than beef, the grease just clung on to the noodles. Although I must say the beef was very tender. However, you should be warned that after eating this you’ll be overcome by this “uncomfortably-heavy-drowsy-feeling”. It’s like a step up from just plain Food Coma because the grease seems to automatically add pounds to your stomach. Probably since this dish was also incredibly salty, the sodium was just too intense for me.

Steamed Dim Sum Platter

I thought I’d go for some dim sum as well. Apparently, the size of every dish is super tiny! For, I believe, about $12 you get 8 steamed dumplings, which were clearly frozen goods! This was like low-budget Chinese-Buffet quality.

Ha Gao

The hao gao (Shrimp dumpling) was so salty I had to wash it down to multiple cups of tea. The skin (usually my favorite part) was so thick it was like biting a gummy bear.

Siu Mai

This just looked like it’d been sitting in the freezer for a really long time. The color was quite odd and I found a chunk of fat in my Siu Mai:(. The skin seemed to be plastered (practically became one-with-the-meat) on the pork.

Chicken Dumpling

Much like all the other dumplings, just too overly salty. Also, if they didn’t tell me that this was Chicken, I’d think it was just some sort of mixed meat. The skin on this dumpling was also a bit dry on the edges, but that could be due to cooling.

Vegetarian Dumpling

I felt this was the least salty of the bunch, but it could be because the filling was quite bland. Although the skin was exactly like the hao gao with a rubbery thick texture.

China Chalet

It’s places like this that make me miss the Chinese Food in Vancouver. I wish I had a chance to go to Flushing because I heard that’s where all the good Chinese Food is, but sadly I was short for time. I surely would not recommend any tourist to visit China Chalet unless you were starving like me. You’d be more satisfied with Hot dogs and Churos from random street vendors!